Dear friends,
Last Wednesday’s match with the team of Vienna ended our hopes for a surprise result and a place in the quarterfinals of the autumn edition of the ICL.
They beat us by 5 IMPs, quite a narrow margin. I think that they beat us because they managed to make fewer mistakes during play, their bidding was, more or less, at the same level, or even worse, than ours. I will stand on two boards: board 7 and board 11 of the 2nd half: these 2 boards cost us 21 IMPs of the total of 30 IMPs that Vienna made there. On board 7, a makeable contract in 3 of hearts went down -2. On board 11, a risky contract of game in spades, doubled by our opponents, normally down -1, went down -4.
I think that these unpleasant outcomes were avoidable, if the declarers had taken a few seconds or even minutes more to weigh the pros and cons, before playing each trick. One may say that some bidding issues occurred (e.g. board 8 in the first half and board 11 in the second half). I think that this is disputable and that the match was perfectly winnable with our bidding as it stood.
You may download the .lin and the .pdf files with descriptive analysis of the played hands here. Please take your time to reflect on the deals. We don’t need to be bitter, but move on for better results. We’ll get the chance to join other great tournaments.
Here’s the comment from Marcello on the match:
“board 5: 3H made. I totally lost my concentration here, and made an unforgivable mistake by not ruffing the second diamond played. I should, easily enough, and switching clubs after, the contract is down. This mistake cost 6IMP,
board 11: In this one, although my decision to bid 5D may look a bit odd, I will stand with my position. The “sound “of bidding convinced me the (world class) opponents were very likely bidding with a 9 cards FIT in spades. If it’s true, Sandra is void in spades, and in this case they can even make 4S, and we can make 5D. Imagine the actual hand switching the small spade in clubs in Sandra’s hand, a perfectly reasonable construction. I couldn’t tolerate this evenience. I had a private talk about the hand after the match with Bergen, our world class opponents at the table. He told me he agreed with my bid, his jump to 4S a shot he did because we were doing very well at the table, and he felt he had to do something. Just unlucky for your part, he said. Grrr.”
Don’t hesitate to send your comments.
Get ready for Sunday, December 4, when the ACOL-IAC challenge will be held (21:00 CET). Let me know of your availability, please !!
The Kampala Team's School of Bridge 